In U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,005, a wheelchair is disclosed, having side arm members to which a restraining device is removably attached.
The restraining device is designed to prevent patients sitting in the chair from falling out and injuring themselves, and comprises a pair of identical elongated brackets, each having a plurality of longitudinally-spaced openings sized for loosely receiving the ends of a restraining bar member, the bar member being then locked to the brackets by means of spring locks or padlocks.
Although the restraining bar of that patent is adjustable relatively to the body of a patient seated in the chair, the range of such adjustment is limited; the bar is not vertically adjustable, nor is it adjustable in length to accommodate it to fit wheelchairs of different widths, nor does it afford restraint to movement of the part of the patient's body or the legs of the patient, so that the patient can, under certain conditions, slide downwardly in the wheelchair and forwardly under the restraining bar and onto the floor.
The device, moreover, provides little or no posture-inducing support for patients in such wheelchairs, which has been found to be a virtual necessity for paraplegics and quadriplegics.
The device of said patent furthermore, requires a certain degree of skill in assembling the restraining bar with the brackets, and securing the brackets to the arms of the wheelchair, all of which is time-consuming.